Erin D.
- 11
- reviews
- 1
- helpful vote
- 32
- ratings
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Booked for the Holidays
- By: Liz Maverick
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Andrew Eiden
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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When mystery author D. B. Ziegler is late delivering her book, Abi Schore steps in to help. Surely she can give her favorite author moral support over the holiday break and get the manuscript to her boss at Tea & Sympathy Publishing in time for the new year. When Abi shows up on Ms. Ziegler’s doorstep bearing holiday treats, she’s met by the author’s handsome grandson Dov, who reveals a startling plot twist. His grandmother isn’t able to finish the book and Dov promised he’d complete it so fans won’t be disappointed—a task that’s harder than he ever imagined.
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What a gem!
- By Joanna N. on 11-14-24
- Booked for the Holidays
- By: Liz Maverick
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Andrew Eiden
Cute twist
Reviewed: 11-26-24
This time of year, Christmas stories abound. I enjoyed hearing and learning about the Jewish Festival of Lights — Hanukkah — for a change. However, Dov’s accent was distractingly wrong. Definitely NOT New York.
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Crossing the Line
- Finding America in the Borderlands
- By: Sarah Towle
- Narrated by: Sarah Towle
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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It was family separation and “kids in cages” that drove Sarah Towle to the U.S. southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the U.S. immigration system—and the heroic determination of those caught under its knee—she could never look away again. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands charts Sarah’s journey from outrage to activism to abolition as she exposes, layer by “broken” layer, the global deterrence to detention to deportation complex that is failing everyone—save the profiteers and demagogues who benefit from it.
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What every American should know about the Border
- By Erin D. on 10-06-24
- Crossing the Line
- Finding America in the Borderlands
- By: Sarah Towle
- Narrated by: Sarah Towle
What every American should know about the Border
Reviewed: 10-06-24
Sarah Towle provides a moving and easily understood explanation of the extremely complicated and dysfunctional immigration system in the US. Using first hand accounts gathered from migrants on both sides of the border as well as many non-governmental humanitarian aide organizations and migrant advocates, she personalizes the humanitarian crisis that has developed — in no small part due to US interference in Central and South American politics. I’ve been to the border several times and considered myself to be well-informed on the subject of border policy, but I learned so much more from this book. More Americans need to read it to understand the history and current state of affairs.
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Solito
- A Memoir
- By: Javier Zamora
- Narrated by: Javier Zamora
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
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MASTERPIECE of Poetic Prose, Outstanding Narration
- By Mary Burnight on 01-12-23
- Solito
- A Memoir
- By: Javier Zamora
- Narrated by: Javier Zamora
Heartbreakingly and beautifully written
Reviewed: 01-16-24
Hearing Javier tell his story in his own words and in his own voice made this poignant story all the more moving for me. My heart pounded inside me as I listened to learn how he fared in each step of his incredible journey and brought me to tears so many times. As someone who has volunteered with asylum seekers both in Texas and across the border in Mexico, I have met many brave "families" like this one. I have seen how they help and support each other and it's a beautiful thing. My wish is that "La Usa" would change our laws to allow good, hardworking people to come here to live and work and contribute to our communities. To those who continue to make the journey north, Dios los bendigas.
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Zero Tolerance
- By: James Patterson, Duane Swierczynski
- Narrated by: Hilary Swank, Christine Ko, Melonie Diaz, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
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Sergeant Jo Barnes (Hilary Swank) and her elite, all-female US Army investigative team are renowned for cracking complex sex-crime cases within the military. Their latest mission takes them to the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin Army Base in California, to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Private Nichelle Simmons—a soldier who accused a comrade of assault. But when the accused is inexplicably set free, their case takes a sinister turn.
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if you have been in the army it is not good
- By sean on 08-25-23
- Zero Tolerance
- By: James Patterson, Duane Swierczynski
- Narrated by: Hilary Swank, Christine Ko, Melonie Diaz, full cast
You get what you pay for
Reviewed: 11-28-23
This was a waste of time So unrealistic Maybe try researching the way Court Martials actually work
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American Dirt
- A Novel
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier, the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city, is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.
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Completely unrealistic
- By Marlene L Marquez on 02-12-20
- American Dirt
- A Novel
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
If it changes one opinion, it's worth reading
Reviewed: 07-12-23
I've been meaning to read this book since it came out. I am a highly educated suburban white woman -- privileged -- who has a heart for the asylum seekers and refugees seeking safety and a better life in our country. In the midst of the massive child separation program of the DJT administration, I felt compelled to go to the border to volunteer. I have returned several times and work with refugee resettlement here at home in NJ and serve on the board of an NGO in Texas that has been assisting asylum seekers since 2018. I have met men, women and children who have gone through some of the traumas described in the book. While the novel is somewhat unrealistic in portraying so many different story lines intersecting each other all on one place, I think she hits on some very common narratives of the real people I met. Rather than "murderers and rapists," I met mothers and fathers, grandparents and aunts and uncles who carried their children and babies for hundreds of miles to arrive with little more than the clothing on their backs. Some of them were farmers whose subsistence farms no longer produced enough to feed their families due to extreme climate change. Some were small business owners who could no longer pay the gangs or cartels the money they demanded; many were trying to get their young boys away before they were required to work for them or their girls before they were forced into relationships with them. I didn't meet and bad hombres -- although I'm not naive enough to think none cross into the US. I met good, caring family people who go just wanted better for themselves and their kids.
I've read a lot of the reviews after finishing the book. And while some of the criticism is justified, let's remember it's a work of fiction, not investigative journalism. It seems to have changed some minds -- or at least OPENED some. My trips to work at the border are for me -- I need to do something tangible about the humanitarian crisis at our doorstep -- which I must say is JUST AS BAD under the current administration as it was under previous administrations! But I also do it so that I can act as witness to the crisis. I share my experiences with anyone who will listen -- including many of my fellow Catholics in a fairly conservative corner of NJ. If I have helped to open their hearts, my time in Texas and in Mexico has been worth it.
I recommend the book as an entree to the issue. I plan to read some of the books suggested by some commenters that may be a bit more realistic.
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Wideacre
- Wideacre, Book 1
- By: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 26 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Philippa Gregory's first story in the best-selling Wideacre trilogy. A compelling tale of passion and intrigue set in the 18th century. From the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin's Lover. Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves. But as a woman of the 18th century, she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others.
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Refreshing
- By Ruth on 11-11-17
- Wideacre
- Wideacre, Book 1
- By: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
The development of the novelist
Reviewed: 04-04-23
Honestly, I skipped over the long foreword, eager to get to this novel by one of my favorite authors. But very quickly once I began listening, I went back to try to understand what I was hearing in the novel! So accustomed was I to Ms. Gregory's excellent and very historically accurate fictional accounts of many famous (and infamous) women, I had to try to understand exactly what was going on in this book. Although I found the descriptions of Beatrice's sexual proclivities, particularly her incestuous relationship with her brother, to be disturbing and far more explicit than they needed to be (in my opinion), I go back to the author's frame of mind as she wrote it and understand a bit better, I think. Young, brilliant, mind filled with the details of the hours and hours and hours of research for her PhD, this first novel seems to me to offer an inside view of the creation of the amazing author this young woman became. I prefer her later work, that is true. But this novel offers great insight into the mind of its author as she began her amazing and successful career as an historical fiction writer.
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Free Billy
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ed Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
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From the master of crime fiction comes an unexpectedly whimsical short story about this San Diego surfer whose life plan is working perfectly until he meets a wealthy woman at an art gallery opening (the hors d’oeuvres), falls in love, and then has to masquerade as an upstanding member of society.
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Quirky and Fun short story
- By Bearded Barista on 03-23-22
- Free Billy
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ed Harris
Predictably amusing
Reviewed: 02-08-23
The idea of a protagonist who is a professional freeloader could be off putting. But Billy's dedication to his free lifestyle is oddly amusing and almost admirable in a twister sort of way. Who doesn't love a happy ending?
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Raven of the Sea
- The O'Brien Tales, Book 1
- By: Stacey Reynolds
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Against the backdrop of windswept, coastal Ireland, two people are brought together under unlikely circumstances, one scarred by tragedy, the other by betrayal.
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A very romantic Irish story
- By kanga2012 on 02-02-22
- Raven of the Sea
- The O'Brien Tales, Book 1
- By: Stacey Reynolds
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
A visit to Doolin, Co. Clare
Reviewed: 11-30-22
It was lovely to hear one of my favorite places in Ireland described in such vivid terms as to evoke an evening at Gus O'Connor's. The O'Brien clan and Ms. O'Mara characters were very well developed and I appreciated the redemption of two of the other female characters as the story proceeded. I'd have liked it even better if it were narrated by a native Irish speaker. The brogues were just a bit off putting.
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Gulf Coast Sunsets
- Blackbird Beach, Book 4
- By: Maggie Miller
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Pamela Almand, Ryan West, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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With a hurricane barreling toward Blackbird Beach, Georgia Carpenter is faced with new problems and the need to work faster than ever. The last thing she needs is more damage to the inn, but she can’t control nature. What she can control is how the people around her weather that storm. In a bid to protect those she loves, she pulls them all close, opening her new home as a place of shelter. Everything’s going fine, too, until the man she’s falling for, Travis Taylor, reveals he has a storm of his own going on. Will the changes in his life mean changes in Georgia’s too?
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Age disconnect
- By Traci Whitcraft on 01-01-23
- Gulf Coast Sunsets
- Blackbird Beach, Book 4
- By: Maggie Miller
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Pamela Almand, Ryan West, Stephanie Einstein, Stacia Newcomb, Nick J. Russo
Snorting unlimited
Reviewed: 10-01-22
One of the most annoying things about this series is the author's repeated use of the word "snorted" to describe -- I can only assume -- a laugh-like sound. Get a thesaurus. I listened to the first three books because they were included and helped me fall asleep. There's no way I would use a credit to listen to the next one in the series. None of the books has any conclusion. They just drop off and pick up as if they were the next chapter. They are not stand alone in any way. The narration is terrible. Such a large cast and none particularly good. I'll have to find something else to put me to sleep.
Oh. And the plot line where they basically blackmail the evil realtor? Is shaming people for choosing to have elective plastic surgery really a strong feminine lead kind of plot?
Do better.
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Before I Let You Go
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Amy Landon
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The 2:00 a.m. call is the first time Lexie Vidler has heard her sister's voice in years. Annie is a drug addict, a thief, a liar - and in trouble, again. Lexie has always bailed Annie out, given her money, a place to sleep, sent her to every kind of rehab. But this time, she's not just strung out - she's pregnant and in premature labor. If she goes to the hospital, she'll lose custody of her baby - maybe even go to prison. But the alternative is unthinkable.
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To much whining
- By angel on 04-24-18
- Before I Let You Go
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Amy Landon
Good story, rough listening
Reviewed: 01-27-22
While I enjoy the author’s storytelling style, I actually chose this book by mistake after sampling it and reading the reviews. I meant to choose another book by Ms. Rimmer but somehow ended up with this one. The reason I was not going to purchase it was the voice of the “Lexie” character, a common criticism in the reviews. I still enjoyed the storyline but would not choose another book narrated by the same person.
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